Sergio Perez had another frustrating weekend as he added just one point to his collection at the Qatar GP; Perez also failed to finish the Sprint after being involved in a collision; F1 returns with the United States GP - live on Sky Sports F1 from October 20-22
Tuesday 10 October 2023 13:46, UK
Christian Horner says he will sit down with Sergio Perez after the Mexican had a "shocker of a race" at the Qatar Grand Prix.
Perez qualified 13th but started from the pit lane as Red Bull elected to change his power unit before Sunday's Grand Prix.
In the Sprint Race on Saturday, he started in eighth and was involved in a collision when trying to pass Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg going into Turn Two.
Things did not get better for Perez in the main race as he was given three five-second time penalties for exceeding track limits and was lapped by team-mate and race winner Max Verstappen.
He finished in 10th to increase his lead over Lewis Hamilton in the battle for second in the drivers' championship to 30 points.
"Checo has had a bit of a shocker of a race. He's had a horrible weekend - the incident on Saturday and unfortunately the three penalties in the race," Horner told Sky Sports F1.
"Without those penalties, he would be a lot further up the points scoring on a day Lewis didn't score, so a missed opportunity to really try and cement that second place.
"We just need to try and get that form that he showed at the beginning of the season back. We know he's got it within him.
"Nothing has really fundamentally changed that much. He's got into a bit of a spiral and he needs to put the brakes on that, reset and use this period, the two weeks to come back in Austin, another Sprint weekend, and really attack it, do the best he can and extract the most out of himself."
The Red Bull team principal added to reporters: "I think we really need to sit down with Checo because we know what he's capable of and he's not hitting that form at the moment. We desperately need him to find that form to keep this second place in the championship."
"It was frustrating that he's only come out of the weekend with one point. Even starting from the back of the grid, I think there was an opportunity to score heavily or decently.
"We will support him as much as we can because there's a triple-header coming up, there's a huge amount of points with Sprint Races as well."
Perez, who was stuck behind the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu at one point, explained his seat position contributed to his track limits mistakes.
"It was really hard for me in the car to judge them, but it's the same for everybody. I should have done a better job," said Perez.
"I had the same problem in Austria. I'm sitting a bit too low in the car and when they made changes at the last minute, I should have gone up."
Perez has a contract to stay with Red Bull until the end of next year and the sister team, AlphaTauri, have confirmed Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda will be their line-up for 2024.
Since winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in April, Perez has yet to stand on the top step of the podium and had a run of five consecutive non-Q3 appearances.
He's taken just one podium in the last five races and Horner is backing his driver to re-find his confidence, especially if Red Bull face a tougher challenge next season.
"We have a contract with Sergio. We are not seeing the best of Sergio. We need to unpick what it is that's causing this slump in form for him and we are going to support him as much as we can to achieve that," said Horner.
"The other teams are working as a pair. Mercedes, it's very tight between their pair, Ferrari it's very tight between their pair. Oscar, what a great job he's doing as a rookie, very tight with Lando.
"We really need Checo to get into that window, not this year to much, but certainly next year we need him to be firing on all cylinders."
Asked if the car development has gone in a direction which does not suit Perez and is more in line with Verstappen's 'pointy' preference with the car's handling, Horner added: "Quick cars are edgy. It's not something we specifically develop in that way. We develop the quickest car that you can. We just need to get to the bottom of what it is he's struggling with."
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